Arcane Wonders - "Vegetable Stock"
- Ryan Driver
- 18 hours ago
- 4 min read
Photo above is property of Arcane Wonders
Company: Arcane Wonders
Game: Vegetable Stock
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Game (Card Game) 📬
Genre: Open Drafting
Date Played: June 1, 2025
Difficulty (based on 5 players): 7/10
Size of Team: 2 to 6 ppl (Ages 10+)
Time: Unlimited (Approximately 10-15 Mins.)
Price: $14.99 USD
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
Vegetable Stock is a light and fast-paced economic card game where players are savvy vegetable traders trying to profit off shifting market trends. Each round, players draft cards representing various vegetables; tomatoes, carrots, corn, broccoli, and eggplants — while also influencing the market values. But you have to be careful, the markets are unpredictable and could crash at any moment!
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
Setup
Lay out the market board with the 5 vegetable Price Cards.
Shuffle the 5 Market Cards and randomly place one onto each of the Price Cards. Each card should cover one of the different market values between 0 and 4.
Shuffle the 45 Vegetable Cards (or 28 in a 2-3 player game) to form a face down deck.
Place a number of cards into the center of the table. The number should be equal to the number of players plus one, so in a three-player game you would deal out four cards.
Drafting Phase
In turn order, each player selects one card from the center and places it in front of them – one card is always left behind.
Market Movement
Increase the value of each vegetable shown on remaining card by one. So, if the card shows two tomatoes and carrot, you would move the tomatoes up by two, and the carrots up by one.
Vegetables that would rise above 5 will now crash, going back down to 0.
Repeat
Players play six rounds in total, with each new round revealing a fresh set of market cards; N+1.
Scoring
At the end, each player multiplies the number of each vegetable they collected by its final market value.
Add up all veggie values, with the highest total winning!
Variants
There are two variants to the game, which will inject a little more unpredictability.
Dynamic Market: The reverse side of the Price Cards removes the level 4 price tier, making market crashes far more frequent.
Weather Cards: There are two weather cards which are shuffled into the deck and get activated once revealed. These are the Good Weather (reveal one more Vegetable Card, causing two cards to increase the market) and the Typhoon Card (prevents any market crashes that round).
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
Vegetable Stock is an incredibly simple and accessible economic game built around open drafting and fluctuating market values. While there’s a touch of strategy involved, much of the gameplay hinges on luck—both in the cards that appear each round and in the choices your opponent’s make during drafting.
Rather than executing a long-term plan, you’ll often find yourself responding to the evolving market—either reacting to the current state of prices or taking educated guesses about where things might go. The randomness of the card draws makes forward planning difficult, and most decisions are made in the moment.
That said, there is room for clever play. Sometimes, the best move isn’t to take the card that benefits you most directly, but rather to leave behind a card that will tank the market for a vegetable your opponents are heavily invested in. These subtle, passive-aggressive plays can swing the game—though making those calls confidently is tricky, especially early on when the final values of each vegetable are still up in the air.
In short, Vegetable Stock is more about timing and tactical reactions than deep strategy—but it embraces that lightness well, delivering a fun and chaotic drafting experience in a quick 15-minute package.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
For a short 10–15-minute experience, this little box packs quite a bit of fun, made even better by the fact that it only takes a few minutes to teach. The bright artwork and playful theme help draw people in and make them forget they’re about to play an economic game.
That said, the elegance of its simplicity may also be a drawback for heavier gamers who prefer more meaningful decisions and deeper strategic play.
Personally, Vegetable Stock is the kind of game I bring out at the start of a game night, especially when I'm with less experienced players or a group looking for a light, social experience where conversation can flow freely without getting in the way of the game.
While it technically supports two players, I find it shines with larger groups. The more people at the table, the more dynamic and unpredictable the market becomes, turning each round into a more vibrant and engaging affair, where shouts of both joy and pain echo equally loud.
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Arcane Wonders for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
Comentarios